1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the exemplary embodiments relate to an image forming apparatus and an operating method thereof, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus which is connected by forming a wireless network with at least one terminal device and an operating method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
With development of electronic technologies, various types of electronic apparatuses have been developed and distributed. One of those electronic apparatuses is an image forming apparatus. Generally, an image forming apparatus means an apparatus that forms an image on various recoding media such as a paper. Specifically, examples of such an image forming apparatus include a copy machine, a printer, a scanner, a Multi-Function Peripheral (MFP), and a facsimile.
Such an image forming apparatus is regarded as essential equipment in an office environment. Recently, a network image forming apparatus which is connected through a network to allow users in an office environment to share data directly has been distributed and used.
Meanwhile, distribution of high-end terminal devices such as a smart phone has also been accelerated. Accordingly, various communication standards for simplifying exchange or use of data by forming a network between terminal devices or between different apparatuses have been continuously discussed. One of those communication standards is a Wi-Fi direct communication standard.
Wi-Fi direct is a technology for realizing peer-to-peer transmission between Wi-Fi terminals so that users may communicate directly with each other without internet connection or a wireless access point and Wi-Fi direct is newly defined, recently, to reinforce a wireless peer-to-peer communication method. Wi-Fi direct is also referred to as Wi-Fi P2P and advantageous in that it is provided in the form of infrastructure rather than an ad-hoc technology to strengthen security more than ad-hoc technology, support direct communication between terminal devices, and make it easier to provide internet service.
Such a wireless network technology as Wi-Fi direct may be applicable to an image forming apparatus. That is, a user may connect to an image forming apparatus using a terminal device that he or she carries and perform printing of data stored in the terminal device through the image forming apparatus.
However, an image forming apparatus is usually in an idle state, which means, an image forming job may not be performed immediately and thus, warming-up should be performed or an idle state should be changed to a normal stand-by state prior to performing printing. Therefore, an image forming job is delayed until change of state is completed, and a user has no choice but to just wait during the transition process.
Accordingly, a method for improving user convenience in this regard is required.